Disappointed with KDE 4's performance and other shortcomings, Timothy Pearson continued KDE 3.5 development under the name Trinity. Today the first third major update of the Trinity Desktop Environment is released, providing an alternative upgrade path for KDE users who do not feel comfortable with KDE 4.

"I currently have a quad-core Phenom X4 2.2Ghz computer with 8GB of RAM and an onboard ATI Radon HD3200 video card...

I'm not doubting you, but this is really weird. Your hardware sounds just like my setup (a Gateway DX something or other) and it used to have issues, but it's worked like a charm since at least Fedora 15. Even before then, KDE4 was usable. The only difference is that I have a slower processor (proc/cpuinfo reportsPhenom 9150 900MHz w/4 cores, though KDE's info center says it will go to 1.8GHz) and less memory (4 GB). I wish I knew what to tell you, other than to try a clean install, but seriously -- with specs like that, KDE4 ought to be a dream for you. Edit: Actually, my video card is integrated on the motherboard, though it says it's HD3200. Do you have a card, or an on-board chip? "

Agreed. On that hardware, KDE4 should absolutely fly. KDE4 works like a charm on each of the multiple systems on which I have installed it, and none of those machines have anything like those specs, they are all far less powerful machines than Thom's.

I too am at a loss as to what to say.

It is a bit of a shame really, because KDE3 misses out on a number of advances of KDE4, including desktop activities, hardware abstraction via Phonon and Solid, and the semantic desktop.

My standards could just be higher. I'm a Windows 7 user, and therefore, tolerate zero lag when it comes to animations and UI effects, even on slow and old hardware. Even simple Atom netbooks run Aero blazing fast and lag-free.

That can't exactly be said for KDE4. Considering you don't use Windows 7, I think the most logical explanation is that your standards are lower.

My standards could just be higher. I'm a Windows 7 user, and therefore, tolerate zero lag when it comes to animations and UI effects, even on slow and old hardware. Even simple Atom netbooks run Aero blazing fast and lag-free. That can't exactly be said for KDE4. Considering you don't use Windows 7, I think the most logical explanation is that your standards are lower.

I run Windows 7 on the same hardware I run KDE4.

Even my very modest hardware (including several different netbooks) runs KDE4 blazing fast and lag-free. Faster than Windows 7 on the same hardware.

Really.

I too don't tolerate anything other than zero lag when it comes to animations and UI effects, even on slow and old hardware, so I tend to avoid Windows 7 unless I really have to use it.

It may be because I disable animations and thus am more sensitive to it (I want my menus and windows to show up when I ask, not a silly fade-in later), but I can certify that Windows 7 is still very much capable of lag under load. And by under load, I mean that even booting it and attempting to use the desktop once it shows up fails, like in the good old XP days.

Since using sleep/hibernation will be sort of mandatory in Windows 8, I guess Microsoft are aware of this problem.

I have the same exact issue with the KDE compared to win7. The animations doesn't feel that smooth and number of times when things go blank/frees are way to great (notebook, i3 330M @ 2.13GHz, 4GB of ram, nvidia GeForce GT 330M)...

Thom, I read a lot of your comments and articles, but this one is just bullshit. I usualy use Openbox on my laptop (a Dell Vostro 1310, CPU Intel T5670 @ 1.8GHz, 2GB RAM, Intel Graphics) and I tried KDE4 just a few weeks ago.

Apart from the fact that I don't like too much eyecandy I can tell you I had no issues with the interface. No lag whatsoever in animations and graphics. There was no problem at all with compositing... so I can conclude that either you have a problem with KDE4 yourself or your hardware doesn't like it (sucks!)

That can't exactly be said for KDE4. Considering you don't use Windows 7, I think the most logical explanation is that your standards are lower.

I also use Windows 7 and have used a version of KDE 4 lately, and while you can never any Linux/X etc. based system as really responsive, the difference is quite imperceptible. I also use Windows 7 and OS X on my Macbook, and the lag with OS X when you compare is really quite shocking. KDE and Linux is nowhere near that bad.